Robert Pattinson Plays The Batman (2022) Under the Shadow of Christian Bale

What about his execution for this role? Is it below, a tie, or even better than Bale? Find out here!

Not even a week has passed by since the premiere of The Batman, movie enthusiasts are excited to throw some cents regarding this new version of the Caped Crusader film. The most interesting spotlight in this movie is addressed to Robert Pattinson as he plays Bruce Wayne or The Batman. Just like any other remake movies, the main actor gets the most attention and typically stands as a comparison to the other main actor in another version.

His predecessor, Christian Bale, undoubtedly has more outstanding impressions that pave the heart of DC Comics addicts. It’s even said that Bale’s version, which consists of Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), is overall the best version still. However, is it true that Christian Bale still holds the throne as the best Batman ever, considering now that all eyes are pointing at Robert Pattinson? Let’s find out by breaking down some points to compare Pattinson with Bale! (SPOILER ALERT)

1. A Lone Wolf vs A Social Butterfly

This may be the most significant distinctive feature so far between Pattinson and Bale. While Bale’s version of The Batman is portrayed as a figure who still occasionally acts as a normal person behind the mask, Pattinson’s version is much more reserved and awkward.

We even can only see him no more than five times as Bruce Wayne in crowded rooms, and the rest of the time he keeps his identity behind the mask. With Bale, he has some balls to go to parties and tries so hard to separate his Bruce Wayne life from his Batman life. As Bale’s version eventually finds his love interests in each film, Pattinson’s version happens to be a coincidental romance with Selina (Zoë Kravitz) who happens to be “connected” with the bad guys in the movie.

2. More Grasp on the “Sherlock Holmes” Moment

In The Batman (2022), many scenes are presented to see how far Pattinson’s instinct can go in order to crack some riddles by the villain, The Riddler. It looks as if he’s forced to rely on his own knowledge and skill without too much intervention from gadgets sophistication. Modern technology only acts as a boost when some situations get pretty rough.

Thanks to his habit in this version who loves to write journals and reflect on what he did and he can do better next, this version Batman is more of a wanna-be-much-better kind of person. It’s quite different from Bale’s Batman version who relies heavily on equipment and more of a tactical person to beat The Joker (Heath Ledger).

3. A Thorough Background Reveal is Not a Thing

We all can agree that Bale’s Batman version is more of an in-depth introduction about who Batman was from the very first start before everything else. It even takes three films for us to know the evolution of Bruce Wayne to The Batman that everyone knows about.

It’s a very different thing with Pattinson’s Batman version, the director, Matt Reeves chooses to give only some sneak peek into The Batman’s life beforehand. So, basically it takes us much more fast forward and places our interests solely on his journey to save Gotham City.

So, folks, what do you think? Has Robert Pattinson proven his ability to play as The Batman? Will he nail the next sequel, if any? And do you think that it’s time for Christian Bale to drop and pass his throne to Robert Pattinson? Comment down below and don’t forget to visit our blog for more entertaining reviews and news!

March 9, 2022 0

Review: The Handmaiden (2016). A Menagerie of the Vilest Human Behaviours

1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl (Sookee) is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress (Hideko) who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle (Kouzuki). But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to elope with him, rob her of her fortune, and lock her up in a madhouse. The plan seems to proceed according to plan until Sookee and Hideko discover some unexpected emotions.

Auteur Park Chan-Wook’s The Handmaiden is a superb exercise in form, structure and tone. With the latter, Park(Oldboy & Joint Security Area) has achieved something extraordinary. If any scene were to linger a few seconds longer or he had decided to focus on a certain issue, the film would have veered off to a different territory. As it is, and with all the major characters’ kooky off-kilter portrayals, I can’t pinpoint whether I was watching something real or abstract. I was also kept in awe by the intricate and resplendent set-design which suggests something dark and Gothic is working the undercurrents. There are of course some serious girl on girl action but that never encroaches into the spine of the story.

Adapting Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, a Victorian tale awash with all manner of Dickensian motifs, Park spins an engrossing tale that ebbs and flows with a Hitchcockian suspense; it withholds as much as it discloses; it is an erotic tale that beats with raw fervour. It is at once a love story but also a menagerie showcasing human beings in their vilest forms. Park’s finger hovers over all the buttons, teasing us gleefully but it is with the ultimate restraint that he never descends down to the usual tropes. The story is divided into three chapters; each told from a different character’s perspective. The structure is Rashomon-esque but Park puts his own stamp on it. The film may be nearly 2.5 hours but I hardly moved in my seat; my senses kept spellbound as each twist hit me hard. When it ended I couldn’t believe 2.5 hours had whizzed by. The plot is pulsating and it never lets up. There’s even an octopus in it!

Written by Daniel Chiam

February 3, 2022 0

Review: The Sessions (2012). A Risqué Subject Matter Sensitively Handled

At the age of 38, Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes), a man who uses an iron lung, decides he no longer wishes to be a virgin. With the help of his therapist and his priest (William H. Macy), he contacts Cheryl Cohen-Greene (Helen Hunt), a professional sex surrogate and a typical soccer mom with a house, a mortgage and a husband. Inspired by a true story, The Sessions, follows the fascinating relationship which evolves between Cheryl and Mark as she takes him on his journey to manhood.

The synopsis above doesn’t even begin to convey how sensitive the risqué subject matter is handled. John Hawkes, one of the most versatile actors in the field, continues to amaze in any role he takes up. This time round he spends his time in an iron lung. For a few hours each day, he can be out of the metal coffin, pushed around on a gurney by a caregiver to the grocery store and even to shop for clothes. He speaks in a reedy voice which makes absolute sense because he lies down all the time. He had polio during his childhood which rendered him bed-ridden his entire life. His muscles don’t work anymore from the neck down but God in a wicked sense of humor retained his sense of feeling on every inch of his inert body. Yes, he still gets a boner but never the release. He is a writer, a poet and a Catholic. In a brilliant counterpoint, the director lets Ben shares his frustrations and feelings to his parish priest, a celibate person. Herein lies a brilliant scene where Ben shares his need for sexual healing outside of marriage, and the priest says he believes God is going to give him a free pass and commands Ben to “go for it”.

Helen Hunt appears nearly half an hour later. She lays down the rules – the most important of which is that there will only be six sessions. She says that is the difference between her and a hooker – the hooker would want Ben to visit her all the time. Hunt plays the trying role with understated histrionics. She really wants to heal an invalid man through sex and after every session she speaks into her tape-recorder and takes down notes of the proceedings and ponders what issues to deal with in the next session. She plays the role with total abandon and a certain elusive warmth. Hunt appears totally nude in many scenes and they are lingering scenes, none of those fleeting half-concealed blink-and-it’s-gone scenes. Oh my goodness… I actually feel quite guilty seeing her in her birthday suit because when I was a teenager I wanted to get married because of her in Mad About You. Every person I know then wants to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer… me? I just wanted to get married.

The tone of the film is exquisitely handled – the director didn’t go for Daniel Day “My Left Foot” Louis-type of extreme histrionics to emotionally manipulate us to the high heavens. The risqué subject matter is sensitively handled and it even has humor. I dare you to not laugh as Ben ejaculates prematurely during the early sessions. As I was watching this, I had no idea how it would end and that itself is a superb feat. As much as the taboo subject matter goes, this is NOT a film about sex but more of what sex is all about. I think Ben says it well when Vera, his caregiver asked him how did it go. “I felt cleansed and victorious!”

When the movie ended I picked up quite a lot of life lessons (what they were I shan’t share because they are different for everyone) and it made me want to spit on films like James Bond movies where sex is trivialized into conquests and a number game.

Written by Daniel Chiam

February 3, 2022 0

Review: Train to Busan: Peninsula. If There’s a Movie Worth Braving the Pandemic to Step Back Into the Cinema, This is it.

It is four years after South Korea’s zombie apocalypse in Train to Busan (2016). Director Yeon Sang-ho brings us on another journey through the wasteland of South Korea, now overrun by zombies. Soldier Jung-seok (Gang Dong-won) makes a journey back with a rag-tag team of three others, including his brother-in-law. Their mission which they chose to accept is to recover an abandoned food truck which was transporting a princely sum of US$20 million. Things of course do not go as planned as they have to battle hordes of zombies and stumble upon human survivors. As if that’s not enough to make it a helluva tough time for the protagonists, they also have to face off with a militia group that has their own unique version of Fight Club.

Okay… Gong Yoo and Ma Dong-seok are not in this which is not surprising, but there are also no trains in this latest installment. They are cars, lots of modified cars, trucks, vans, a ship, a helicopter and lots of guns.

Gone is the high concept of putting a motley crew of characters onboard a bullet train filled with zombies and in comes a hotchpotch of recycled story ideas from Escape From New York and Mad Max: Fury Road. The canvas is bigger but it doesn’t have the same emotional heft as the original.

The characters are too one-note for my taste and they just aren’t street wise enough. The bad guy says he will give the crew half of the stash if they recover the truck. I guess only desperados will believe that. I just know they will eat a bullet if they are successful and yet these guys decide to go to Zombieland like it’s prom night.

There are some great ideas that are mentioned – the xenophobia and that North Korea is now safer than the South, but they are thrown out so fast like it’s a disease. What you have here is a straight-up survival flick that is just serviceable. This won’t be something that will stay in your mind long after the house lights come on.

Even though it loses the inventive claustrophobia of the original, it retains the problem solving element that I enjoyed tremendously. Here, cars are retro-fitted with tools that make them versatile in evading zombies. There are some action set-pieces that are inventive, in particular the gladiator rink located in a mall and the climatic car chase that will surely make you think of the Fast and Furious franchise and Mad Max. I mentioned Mad Max but Peninsula is not in the same ballpark because the night-time car chase is laden with CGI which is splotchy at best, barely hiding the impossible physics and motion of the vehicular mayhem and the marauding zombies.

It all culminates in an extended ending that hardly makes any sense. If you aren’t weaned on sappy K-dramas, you might be tearing your hair out watching human behaviour that doesn’t fall within the logical range.

But what do I know? I know one thing – in a cinema landscape that is bereft of good films, let alone blockbusters, Train to Busan: Peninsula is a godsend and it is going to bring in the moola by the truckloads.

PS – I have just learned that a COVID-19 patient visited a cinema recently. Sitting in a cinema hall for 2 hours with a person with the virus is one scary prospect. So Train to Busan: Peninsula will be the only time I will step back into the cinema for now. You can say I went through the valley of death to bring you this review 😎

Written by Daniel Chiam

February 3, 2022 0